


Na Desh Séfetiye Napelésh ere Kuxaku

by kalirush



Category: The Expanse (TV)
Genre: Environmental Systems, Gen, Lang Belta, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 07:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17157710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalirush/pseuds/kalirush
Summary: Miller solves a problem for a friend.





	Na Desh Séfetiye Napelésh ere Kuxaku

**Author's Note:**

  * For [all_these_ghosts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_these_ghosts/gifts).



> This story requires that the creator's style be enabled (I've used a skin to have translations as hover text).

Miller looked up from his desk to see Katya Corbaux walk into the station house, and he knew immediately that she’d come to find him.

It wasn’t the way she scanned the room nervously. It wasn’t even the way that she started heading in his direction. No, it was because she was Candace’s friend- she’d been a bridesmaid at their wedding and all- and, of course, he hadn’t seen her once in the six months since the divorce.

Miller sat miserably at his desk and waited for her.

“Miller,” she said, as she walked up.

Miller rubbed the back of his head. “Katya,” he said.

She had the grace to look awkward. “ ,” she said. “” 

“” He had better things to do than deal with his ex-wife’s friends today. He had better things to do _every_ day. 

“” she asked. 

He sighed and pushed out a chair. “” he said. 

She sat, then scooched herself closer, glancing reflexively around the room. When she spoke, her voice was low. “” He nodded, but she didn’t wait for it. “” 

Miller didn’t like the sound of that. “”

“” she protested. “”

That made chills go right up Miller’s scalp. “Okay,” he said. “”

She nodded unhappily. Miller knew just how she felt.

He sighed. “Okay,” he said, “”

\----------------

Miller took the tubes to the hospital after work. Katya met him at the door, and took him back into the rooms with the kids. He didn’t need to actually see a bunch of sick kids to convince him that somebody had to do something about it if the air filters weren’t being maintained right.

But the kids were pretty sick. Hooked up to respirators, some of them, masks on the rest. Most of the parents weren’t around, which pissed Miller off a bit, even though he knew that people this deep in the dig were probably scratching to get by, no time off to sit with a sick kid. The ones that were around, he sat them down and took their statements. Katya was right- all from the same block of holes, all from the same level, all kids under the age of twelve. 

Which meant that he was wasting his time here. He wasn’t a doctor, and if Katya was right, and the environmentals were being screwed with, this wasn’t a medical puzzle anyway.

“” he asked Katya.

“” she said, sounding offended that he’d asked. 

Miller didn’t bother arguing with her about whether everybody had a price or not. Miller did, the boss did, even Katya did, even if she wasn’t going to admit it to herself- but if Katya had seen the boss make the report, it probably wasn’t the boss who’d been bought in this case.

There were two directions to go: he could try to figure out who was stonewalling the report, or he could try to figure out what was making the kids sick. Miller decided to start with the path of least resistance. 

\-----------------------

“” Koji said. “.”

Koji Starkey was Ceres born and bred, and the kind of tall-and-skinny that was meant for climbing through air ducts. Miller had looked the other way when Koji’s nephew had gotten in trouble a year back- stupid kid shit, and Miller hadn’t seen any percentage in throwing him in the lock-up over it- and as far as Koji was concerned, that meant he owed Miller a favor.

“” Miller said. “"

“” he grumbled, but Miller knew he’d do it.

“” he said.

\------------------------

In the meantime, Miller headed back to his hole. He needed food, and he needed a look at some files. Noodles and black sauce filled the first requirement, and he sat down and started looking at the second while he scooped fungus and protein and noodles into his mouth. 

Katya’s boss had made a report, which he only knew from Katya, because it wasn’t showing up on Miller’s screens. 

Katya’s boss had subsequently told Katya to leave the issue the hell alone and focus on treating the kids, so Miller couldn’t exactly go interview her without causing Katya a world of trouble. Unfortunately, Katya didn’t have a name for the official over in Environmental who’d taken the complaint. She’d seen him, though, so Miller at least had a description to work from. He wasn’t ruling out interviewing the boss, but it couldn’t hurt to start here.

Miller chewed his noodles and settled down to play the “who would a hospital administrator call to complain, who is also bald and dark-haired and is maybe an inner” game.

\------------------------------

By the time Miller’s shift was due to start again in the morning, Miller had all the answers he’d been looking for, and twice as many problems.

Koji had checked the filters, and they weren’t the standard kind that Ceres environmental used. Miller had tracked them down: Earth make, cheap, and not meant for the kind of use they were being put to here on Ceres. He didn’t know how they got out here, but he could guess: someone had a surplus, and someone also thought they could make a buck by selling them off to Belters, and someone also found a sympathetic guy in Environmental who was willing to take them off his hands in exchange for a cut of the profits. Koji was spitting nails about it.

Miller finally ID’d that sympathetic guy as Pipsan Gillespie, originally of Earth, which explained why he was willing to compromise the air systems for money. He was also, unfortunately, one of the governor’s relatives (a great-nephew? a cousin once-removed? Miller was fuzzy on what the right term for that place on the family tree was), which accounted for why Katya’s boss hadn’t kept on complaining. Why complain if you know the complaint will be quashed, and maybe you will too?

Miller knew that _his_ boss would have the same attitude. The governor held Star Helix’s contract, after all, and there were be other security services who would be happy to take over the job if the governor decided to terminate that contract.

It was a tough problem, and Miller hesitated for about ten seconds before he sent Gillespie’s file- including some pictures of the sick kids- to some OPA hardcases. Anonymously.

He figured, if he got assigned the murder case, he’d have a head start on it.

**Author's Note:**

> I was kind of tempted by the idea of spending my Christmas working out how to write dialogue in Lang Belta (caveat: this is my first attempt, and also, I shamelessly made up a few words). Hopefully you enjoy the treat anyway!


End file.
